March Woodcock Cove with John

 

John getting ready to send

Woodcock Cove

March 24, 2024

Big Orange Baby (5.10+) - Finger crux 25 feet up. Fun traverse left to right halfway with large hands and smearing feet.

Honky Red (5.11a) - Thin but straightforward.

Hokumpoke (5.11b/c) - Hard, tricky, beta-intensive start. Rest below the roof. Then fire through it, and don't stop until you're standing up straight above it. I made the mistake of trying to pause right above the roof and pumped out, had to take.

Insurrection (5.11a) - Thin delicate climbing. Middle section was crux. Lots of back and forth to the left and right.

Mask It or Casket (5.12-) - Heel hook on first roof. Second roof looks awkward but is all jugs. On the face above, when it gets thin, move left to the corner/arete. Above the next clip, move far right. Go to the top. I fell multiple times before I figured out that I needed to go left instead of straight up in the middle of this climb.

Sedition (5.10d) - Chill face climbing with a small, juggy roof.

February Tennessee Wall with Jacob

 February 15, 2024

Gorgeous weather, highs in the sixties.

True Colors (5.8) - Fun, stemmy climb, but no bolts at the top! Used a tree as a top-rope anchor.

Contents Under Pressure (5.9) - Tough getting out of the chimney at the bottom. Then a bit chossy in the second half, although the climbing there was easier. Finished at the same tree as the first climb.

Finger Lockin' Good (5.10b/c) - Wanted to send this again after failing on last year's attempt. This time I finally made it to the top cleanly, although I fell twice near the bottom and was forced to lower back down to the start each time. Then Jacob did it twice, and I repeated it once on toprope. My beta for next time:

In general, remember to try different fingers, and try to get them in as deep as you can. High step whenever possible.

First crux is right off the deck. You can place a nut right off the deck to do the first moves without worry about broken ankles. Down low there are some key footholds on the face on the right. This includes a right facing edge that seems improbable about 10 feet up. Use this combined with a layback foot in the crack to get up to the face ledge for the first rest. 

Next moves: smear and use the crack for footholds to get to the juggier finger locks higher up. After jogging right, continue up, remembering high feet along the way. This is enters the second crux. Near the ledge at the top of this finger crack the finger locks are not as good as they seem from below, and the feet are nothing but smears and prayers. You just need to power through.

Continue to the cave. Place gear in the cave such as a 0.5 in the pocket on the left interior, or place a piece in the handhold that you use to exit the cave. Traverse left out onto the face and face climb gingerly to the top. The very last five feet is slopey, so be sure to place gear in the horizontal crack.

Super slide

I bailed 6 feet above the Roof. Couldn't figure out the moves and protection seemed far away. Although, there is a GREAT 10 nut right above the roof and a 0.75 totem in the slot 4 feet above and to the left of the roof.

Super Slide (5.10b) - I bailed six feet above the Roof. I couldn't figure out the moves, and protection seemed far away. However, there is a GREAT #10 nut right above the roof as well as a 0.75 Totem in the slot four feet above and to the left of the roof. Both of these are solid protection for the move getting up over the roof and onto the face. If I do this again I need to figure out exactly where the route goes after getting over the roof.

Passages (5.8) - A lap up this route gave us both a final burn as well as an opportunity to clean the gear I had left on Super Slide. This climb always feels harder than I expect, and I was feeling especially tired by this point in the day.

February Tennessee Wall with Noel

 

Noel glances down near the start of Molly and Rocket

February 3, 2024

Sunday Gardening (5.8) - My lead. I don't think I had ever climbed this one before. It's a corner crack to a set of tiered roofs. There's a bit of vegetation in the middle of the climb. Some thought is required through the roofs.

Molly and Rocket (5.9-) - Noel's lead. The guidebook gives this 5.8(+?). It definitely feels harder than that to me.  Lots of fun. It's especially challenging getting out of the little cave.

Points O' Contact (5.10c) - Apparently I've followed this before, but I didn't remember it this time. I led it cautiously. I placed two nuts at the lip of the big roof to keep the rope from snagging in the crack. The real crux is higher up, about 2/3 of the way, where you transition slightly left from the finger crack and begin to stem between the two cracks. At the beginning of this a black alien works well - I placed it high and blind in the crack on the left, and when I checked it out after the move it looked solid. Bring more than 14 runners. A fun climb that felt very challenging at the grade.

Restless Pedestrian (5.8+) - Noel's lead. A short but fun hand crack with awkward feet.

Puppy Ride (5.9) - My lead. There is a crux (boulder problem) right at the start, and another one about 25 feet off the deck. Otherwise this climb is pretty chill, with great pro. It also is a rather long climb, lots of fun!

T-Wall January 2024 with Darian and Tim

January 14, 2024

Jay Walker (5.7) - Warm-up

Tim starts off on Jay Walker

Passages (5.8) Wow what a fun climb! Traverse under the roof is exciting. And the whole climb is pretty long.

Sanscrit (5.8) - Challenging bottom. Cruiser second half. 

November Denny Cove with Matt

At the base of Empire of Dirt

November 18, 2023

Denny Cove Buffet Wall

Empire of Dirt (5.12a) - I had four takes or so on this climb. Top was steep but didn't feel hard. Middle section felt harder.

Flash Fried (5.12c) - The guidebook said 5.12b, recent comments on Mountain Project say 5.12c/d after some holds broke off. It felt hard. I got to the top, but only by pulling on draws in two crux sections.

Kobayashi (5.11d) - Pumpy, crimpy, powerful climbing. I made it to the top cleanly, but it was a struggle.

September Devil's Tower with Derek

 

I flew to Rapid City, SD on September 7, 2023 and met Derek at the airport. After spending the night in Rapid City, we drove to Devil's Tower the following morning and got on Durrance around lunchtime.

Durrance (5.7+) truly was classic. Derek led the approach pitch. I climbed pitches one and two together as a single pitch. Derek led pitches three, four, and five. All of the pitches on this climb were extremely short. I don't really understand why there are so many intermediate anchors. From the end of the fifth pitch I led the Bailey variation to get us to the top. The crux for me on Durrance was near the top of pitch two, making a tricky move from the left wall to the right. This definitely felt harder than 5.7.

We wandered around a bit enjoying the top and laughing at the sign before rapping down.

We had some daylight left, so we wandered farther east to Soler (5.9). This felt like one of the longest and most sustained routes I've done. I led it in a single pitch, and it was just endless hand and finger jams for 250 feet. Just from an endurance perspective I almost fell two thirds of the way up. 

The next day we set out with El Matador (5.10d) as our objective. Clouds were already starting to threaten us as Derek got onto the first pitch, and has he neared a tricky mantle move near the top the skies completely opened up, drenching the rock. We quickly decided to abandon this project as he lost all traction on the wet lichen, and I lowered him back down.

Dejected, we debated heading to the airport a day early, but decided to at least try climbing a pitch on the eastern (sunnier) side that we hoped would be drier. We decided on Walt Bailey Memorial (5.9). I hung two thirds of the way up when the finger crack started to thin out. It was all there, but I needed to steel my nerves. So after this initial take, I sent the route to the top. I ended up placing eight nuts on this route, probably more than I have ever placed on a route before! It is a long and sustained finger crack to hand crack the entire way. My ankles were on fire. We wandered across the meadow and rapped down the Durrance rap line. 

Thinking we would cross our fingers and hope for continued fine weather on the east side, we made our way to New Wave (5.10a). Derek led this, also as a single pitch. It is a fun and exciting 10a with many 5.8 moves, one or two 5.9 moves, and one VERY exciting traverse crux at a bolt. My beta was to reach around right of the arete and kind of lie back on it, but the feet below are pure friction, and they're not to your right. So it feels totally insecure.

From the top of New Wave we moved over slightly left and I led Assembly Line (5.9). This was yet another long, continuous pitch of 5.8/5.9 hand crack for 110 feet followed by an easier wider section. My ankles were screaming on this route as I foot jammed, placing gear over and over. It just seemed to go on forever. With both of us finally at the top, we rapped using the Beal Escaper to the top of New Wave, then did a single rap without the Escaper to the mid point of New Wave (the rope didn't really reach, so I had to reach down to clip the bolts and down climb a few feet). Then we used the Escaper one last time to get down. 

We finished by walking all the way around the tower base. As we got back to our car, it started to rain again. So we had timed things perfectly. What a spectacular day! 

Assembly Line on Devil's Tower 

August Sunset Rock with Daniel

August 27, 2023

Sunset Rock with Daniel

Stan's Crack (5.8+) - warmup

Cornerstone (5.11-) - Daniel's lead. He needed to retrieve a stuck nut placed the previous week. I fell halfway up the arete, then found a key finger lock and did the climb without incident from there.

Jefferson Airplane (5.10a) - my lead. I barndoored off right after placing my second piece, because I wasn't paying close attention. Lowered to the ground, then sent it clean to the top. While up there I rigged the anchor over Mineral Fright instead of Jefferson Airplane.

Mineral Fright (5.11a) - Daniel and I both top-roped this climb. Fun climbing on tiny crimps. It would be a dangerous lead.

Another Fallen Angel (5.10) - Daniel led this and made it look easy. I have always hestiated to climb this when I've been at Sunset in the past. But, Daniel made it look so easy this time that we pulled the rope and I set off trying to lead it myself. He had placed two pieces before getting to the perfect hand crack beneath the roof. While there, he had placed two additional cams and extended them both. Then he had gone over the roof and pushed to the top. When I tried to do this I was initially shut down at the roof. First I just plain hung on the rope. The next time I managed to get my hand on the jug over the lip, but I traversed right (the wrong way), couldn't get myself over the lip and ended up taking a fall. Finally the next time I made it. The sequence was:

1. Hands in the jam under the roof

2. High right heel hook on the same rail as the hands

3. Reach way way out and up and right for a jug at the edge of the lip/roof

4. Put both feet in the hand crack

5. Pull hard up and go for the rail way above your head and to the left

6. Move farther left with matched hands on the rail

7. High right foot. Trust it!

8. Right hand to the crimp in the small crack above the roof on the right

9. Pull the roof and go